Development of mariculture (02-08-2018)

Aquaculture in far-flung deep-sea, open bays and open oceans is currently a potential developing orientation of Quang Ninh. It not only solves the existing problems of onshore and near-shore aquaculture but also diversifies species and ensures the product’s quality to increase economic value.
Development of mariculture

Aquaculture in Quang Ninh province has been strongly developing in recent years. In 2017, the whole province has more than 20,600 hectares of aquaculture area and 9,600 cages with total production of over 54,000 tons. Main cultivating species are shrimp with 10,603 hectares and 11,558 tons of output, molluse with 3,445 hectares and 23,216 tons of output, fresh-water fish with 3,200 hectares, 10,507 tons of output, sea fish with 1,700 hectares and 5,615 tons of output…

However, the total said area is mainly in ponds on land, in tidal and coastal areas. A few of species are nourished on the sea surfacebut they are mainly located in the straits which has advantageous air-tight but small area, low depth, limited water circulation… less possibility to expand. Cage culture (small size, common materials), oyster culture, clam culture, geo-duck culture, some pearl culture and fish culture associated with tourism on Ha Long Bay are typical examples.

Besides, Quang Ninh aquaculture industry is facing the risk of disease, environmental pollution and unsafe product quality, leading to high risks. At present, the province does not have any assured infrastructure system and are unable to produce any seeds in place to be quarantined. The backward culture technology with raising extensive shrimp, using trash fish as food while there is no solution to handle excess food ... leads to the possibility of getting and spreading disease to the whole nourishing area. Aquaculturistsuse too many chemicals and antibiotics, which make products exceed toxic substances, leading to the acceptance ofcheap and unstable markets.

The current situation has posed a need of aquaculture development in the direction of far-flung, deep-sea, using the surface of open bays and open sea areas. Quang Ninh not only has a long coastline, many mangrove forests, tidal flats, coral reefs, hillocks, air-tight bays… but also has a surface area of over 6,000 square kilometers (equivalent to the land area), of which two potential locations are Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long with 1,553 square kilometers.These are the prominent conditions and advantages to develop the cage culture, bottom culture that few localities in the country have.

Mr. Nguyen Van Cong, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that aquaculture in remote and deep-sea areas not only solves the existing problems of the current onshore and near-shore aquaculture in the province, but also diversified species, ensures product’s quality leading to the increase in economic value. Especially in the fisheries development strategy of the province, aquaculture is determined to occupy high production, high value and a large proportion in the industry. Specifically, by 2020, aquaculture production will account for 55% of total aquaculture production with 70,000 tons; by 2030, it will reach 98,000 tons, accounting for nearly 60% of the total fishery output of the whole province. In addition, aquaculture in far-flung deep-sea and remote areas also allocates land area for other dynamic economic development activities of the province, which is an extremely necessary condition for adynamic developing province like Quang Ninh.

In fact, aquaculture in far-flung deep-sea areas has long been the major development direction of aquaculture of many countries in the world in general, especially China, which brings great economic achievements. At present, mariculture in Quang Ninh has started to be recognized but it is just in the open, small-scaled form and there is no model of fish cage culture with modern materials in the open ocean.This is due to difficult conditions of mariculture, big waves, big wind, lack of culture skills with suitable materials technology and especially lack ofmariculture thinking.

In the second quarter of last year, Quang Ninh has officially signed a cooperation on the development of industrial mariculture in the period of 2018-2025 with the Vietnam Seaculture Association. It will focus on planning and managing marine space, supporting the transfer of technology of mariculture and trade promotion. In the second haft of the year, the model of industrial mariculture will be built in the province, bringing advantages of aquaculture in far-flung deep-sea areas, open bays and open seas.

However, Quang Ninh should have a plan to develop mariculture, which specifies the potentials, strengths and annual developing route, builds policies and allocates the province’s resources as well as attracts business investment in this area.

TRAN HONG DUONG

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